Episode Transcript

Hey what’s up? What’s up? What’s up everybody? Welcome to Five Minute rants guys, welcome to THE a.m. I’m your host, Michael Abernathy. And welcome to the show predicated on the journey of life and business. Hope you’re doing well hope life is treating you good. And I’m just gonna go ahead and jump straight into today’s topic.

I want to talk about politics, okay. And I’m not talking about actually who we’re gonna vote for. I want to talk about politics in our everyday lives, like politics in office, politics, and relationships, politics of friends groups and culture. And Here’s What I mean, I think politics are a very bad thing. And Here’s my definition of politics. It is talking to people from a place to keep them happy. So it’s always saying things keep everybody happy, always saying things to not rock the boat, it is just toeing the middle line. And it actually creates a lot of destructive things, especially in the workplace. But if you build relationships, in this, like speaking in politics, and being politically minded in this way, it actually destroys relationships down the road, because then you’re not a trusted source. For when it comes time for truth, you’re not a trusted person, for when it comes time to actually talk about the hard decisions that need to make, you’re not trusted, you can’t be believed you you’re not even counted upon for anything like that.

The other thing too is, when you are talking to keep everybody happy, you will actually at some point eventually fly to them. Because you’re talking to keep them happy versus telling them What you really think. And as a result, you just start sowing dishonesty into all of your relationships. Whether you intend to or not, doesn’t matter. It’s What is naturally going to occur because your whole goal is to keep them happy, and don’t say anything to upset them. And then as a result, when they ask you What do you think you’re not actually telling them What you think, and politics are so destructive, especially in the workplace. So if you’re in a team of people and that team of people is politically, like, hindered, everybody’s talking to keep everybody happy. Everyone’s saying Great job. All these things. There’s no constructive criticism. There’s no interjection of new ideas that might be go against the grain, that team is going to underperform, it’s actually going to cause major problems down the line, especially in leadership, you talk about if you have politics in office, where leadership is always told things based on keeping them happy, it’s going to be so destructive, Here’s why.

Once the politics are removed, you can have open and honest conversations. And without politics, truth becomes really evident. There’s clear boundary lines, there’s clarity and discussion, there’s clarity on where everybody stands. There’s clarity of ideas, right. But that it requires confrontation. And I’m not talking about like, you’re just sitting there screaming and yelling at each other getting a fist fight. That’s not What I’m talking about. I’m talking about confronting the other side of the argument or confronting a new idea, or even confronting the current idea at hand with opposing ideas, whether you’re in leadership, project management, especially when you’re trying to find solutions to problems and issues or when you’re trying to overcome challenges, it is so important to have that confrontation. One because everybody needs buy in, right, your whole team needs to be bought in. So the whole team should be talking if the team isn’t talking about What they believe is best, how they should how they disagree with the solution at hand, a proposed solution, they’re not going to have any buy in, which means they don’t believe in whatever they’re doing.

You cannot have a team with a strong belief set in What is being done without buy end people need to buy into, to convince themselves or to go down the journey of yes, this is the right answer. And everybody does this in one shape or form. The other thing is, there’s an old proverb that says the wounds of a friend are better to be trusted than the kisses of an enemy. And I often think about this, if I’m going to say or speak to people or talk to them, I really come from that place of I would rather be trusted to tell you the truth. And if you don’t like me because of that, that’s okay. But I’d rather be trusted tell you the truth to be counted on to be a person who is going to tell you What they think, and be honest with you on all fronts. Versus I’m just here to keep you happy. It’s not my job to keep you happy. Happiness is part of everybody else’s decisions they need to make and how they’ve got to conduct themselves. I personally believe happiness and contentment and gratitude are all choices. Right? They’re not just emotions you feel they’re choices you make. And so when you talk from a place of politics, it just really shows confusion. There’s a lack of integrity and it really undermines the purpose and vision of the relationship or the company.

Anyways guys, just some food for thought. And I’ll catch you on the flip side peace